Hegseth right to mock Royal Navy, says ex-army chief as he backs claims over military underfunding
Good morning. When Keir Starmer gave evidence to the Commons liaison committee before the Easter recess, and when he made a statement to MPs yesterday on the first day after it was over, he was repeatedly asked when the government will publish its defence investment plan (DIP). On both occasions, he could not give a timetable and would just say it would be published as soon as it was ready.
His critics are furious because the DIP, a 10-year plan explaining how the government will fund its commitment to get defence spending up to 3% of GDP by the end of the next parliament, with total national security spending reaching 5% of GDP by 2035, was due to be published last autumn.
In particular, the DIP will explain how the government will be able to fulfil the goals set out in the strategic defence review it published last year. The review was led by the Labour peer George Robertson, a former defence secretary and former secretary general of Nato. And he seems to have finally lost patience with the government.
He is giving a speech in Salisbury tonight, but Lucy Fisher from the Financial Times has already written up some extracts and in them Robertson is withering about the Treasury. According to Fisher’s report, Robertson will accuse “non-military experts in the Treasury” of “vandalism”, adding: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
He will criticise Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, for devoting just 40 words to defence in her budget speech last year, and saying nothing about the topic at all in her spring statement last month. He will say:
double quotation mark There is a corrosive complacency today in Britain’s political leadership. Lip service is paid to the risks, the threats, the bright red signals of danger — but even a promised national conversation about defence can’t be started.
He will also say Britain is not safe.
double quotation mark We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe . . . Britain’s national security and safety is in peril.
Robertson is not a defence loudmouth. He is a quintessential establishment figure who for most of his career has avoided being provocative, or rocking the boat. If he feels minded to speak out like this, it must be serious.
Olivia Lee has a full write-up here.
This morning General Sir Richard Barrons, who along with Robertson was one of the three experts who wrote the defence review (the other was the former White House adviser and Russia expert Fiona Hill), gave an interview to the Today programme. Barrons, a former commander of Joint Forces Command, fully supported what Robertson will be saying in his speech. And he said that Britain’s armed forces are so diminished that he had to accept that Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, was right when he mocked the Royal Navy last month.
“Last time I checked, there was supposed to be a big, bad Royal Navy that could be prepared to do things like [clear the strait of Hormuz] as well,” Hegseth said.
Asked how he felt hearing that, Barrons said:
double quotation mark Like many others I hung my head in sorrow. But I couldn’t argue with him because although the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force and the army are, in their bones, outstanding institutions, they are simply too small and too undernourished to deal with the world that we we now live in. And the review says this.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet. There will be a political session, as well as the usual government meeting.
10am: South East Water executives give evidence to the environment, food and rural affairs committee, followed by Ofwat chief executive Chris Walters at 11am.
10am: Education experts give evidence to the Commons education committee about the proposed changes to Send (special educational needs and disabilities) provision.
10.30am: Executives from TikTok, Meta, Sky TV and Paramount TV executives give evidence to the culture committee about children’s TV and video content.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in south London.
11am: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, holds a press conference focusing on health.
11.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Afternoon: Starmer meets his Dutch counterpart, Rob Jetten, in Downing Street.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Key events
Starmer and Macron to co-chair summit in Paris on Friday about keeping strait of Hormuz open
Downing Street has announced that Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, will co-chair the next meeting of the group of 40-odd countries exploring options for keeping the strait of Hormuz open after the Iran war ends. The meeting will take place in Paris on Friday.
Starmer to chair new cabinet committee dealing with fallout from Iran war
Keir Starmer will lead a new cabinet committee to deal with the fallout from the Iran conflict, the Press Association reports. PA says:
double quotation mark The group – the Middle East response committee – has its first meeting today focused on efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz, the shipping route vital for global oil and gas supplies.The PM established the committee to deal with the domestic and international impacts of the war, which has driven up energy prices, caused stock market turmoil and exposed deep divisions between the US and its traditional European allies.
No 10 insiders compared the new panel to the committees set up under Tory prime ministers to deal with Brexit preparations and the Covid pandemic.
A source said the “new central structure” would focus on “medium-term scenario planning to respond to developments in the region over the coming weeks and months”.
Alongside the ministerial committee – whose full membership has not yet been disclosed – senior officials will meet under the chairmanship of cabinet secretary Dame Antonia Romeo.
The new structure is seen as an acknowledgement that the situation will continue to have an impact on the UK for some time, but meetings of the emergency Cobra committee will still be held to respond to immediate crises.
This is from Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor (and former political editor), on George Robertson’s intervention. (See 8.58am.)
double quotation mark Lord Robertson is a good man that has been passionate about defence spending and Nato all through his political career. He struck with the Labour right wing when it was neither fashionable nor a good career move. Naturally Labour right wingers have gravitated towards the defence portfolios down the years, and Robertson is a premier example. So when he says “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget,” he is bringing his politics, as well as his expertise, to the debate. He is not beyond challenge. Nor would he expect to be.
Badenoch says Trump’s picture of himself as Jesus ‘preposterous’ and some of his remarks ‘childish’
In her Radio 5 Live interview, Kemi Badenoch also criticised Donald Trump for making “childish” remarks.
The Conservatives regard the US Republicans as a sister party and, for most of her time as Tory leader, Badenoch mostly supportive of Trump. But today she said that the image of Trump as Jesus that he posted on Truth Social was “preposterous”, and she said his decision to share it was “very bizarre”.
She went on:
double quotation mark If [Trump is] saying something that makes sense, we should agree. If he says something that doesn’t make sense, we should disagree. I think he’s right to say we need to do more spending on defence … He’s wrong to make childish remarks. He’s wrong to [make] these empty threats on Greenland and so on. All of that’s wrong. What he said about Iran [the threat to wipe out its civilisation], that’s wrong as well.
This is not the first time Badenoch has used the word “childish” to describe some of Trump’s comments.
Badenoch says she ‘100% agrees’ with Robertson about ‘ever-expanding welfare budget’ putting defence at risk
Kemi Badenoch has told Radio 5 Live that she “100% agrees” with what George Robertson is saying, as quoted in the FT, about Britain being unable to defend itself properly with an “ever-expanding wefare budget”. (See 8.58am.) Asked about his speech in an interview this morning, she said:
double quotation mark We used to spend one in every seven pounds on welfare. Now it’s one in every three pounds and a lot of that money has basically been swapped for defence.The world is not as peaceful as it used to be. The peace dividend that existed after the fall of the Berlin Wall is gone, we need to spend more money on defence.
This is a former Labour defence secretary, former [Nato] secretary general, saying what I’ve been saying for the past few weeks.
According to the FT, Robertson will also say in his speech tonight that “depressingly” the leaders of the Liberal Democrat and Reform UK turned down his invitation to a briefing on what the strategic defence review says. Badenoch said this was proof other parties were not taking defence seriously.
Nigel Farage’s spokesperson told the FT that the Reform UK leader was not aware of the invitation. Ed Davey’s spokesperson did not respond to the FT’s request for a comment.
Government defends its record on defence spending in response to George Robertson saying ‘UK not safe’
The government has defended its record on defence spending in response to the criticisms made by George Robertson. (See 8.58am.) In response to the FT story, a government spokesperson said:
double quotation mark We are delivering on the strategic defence review to meet the threats we face.It is backed by the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, with a total of over £270bn being invested across this parliament.
We are finalising our defence investment plan that we will publish as soon as possible, putting the best kit and technology into the hands of our forces, rebuilding British industry to make defence an engine for growth and doubling down on our own commitment to Nato.
Hegseth right to mock Royal Navy, says ex-army chief as he backs claims over military underfunding
Good morning. When Keir Starmer gave evidence to the Commons liaison committee before the Easter recess, and when he made a statement to MPs yesterday on the first day after it was over, he was repeatedly asked when the government will publish its defence investment plan (DIP). On both occasions, he could not give a timetable and would just say it would be published as soon as it was ready.
His critics are furious because the DIP, a 10-year plan explaining how the government will fund its commitment to get defence spending up to 3% of GDP by the end of the next parliament, with total national security spending reaching 5% of GDP by 2035, was due to be published last autumn.
In particular, the DIP will explain how the government will be able to fulfil the goals set out in the strategic defence review it published last year. The review was led by the Labour peer George Robertson, a former defence secretary and former secretary general of Nato. And he seems to have finally lost patience with the government.
He is giving a speech in Salisbury tonight, but Lucy Fisher from the Financial Times has already written up some extracts and in them Robertson is withering about the Treasury. According to Fisher’s report, Robertson will accuse “non-military experts in the Treasury” of “vandalism”, adding: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
He will criticise Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, for devoting just 40 words to defence in her budget speech last year, and saying nothing about the topic at all in her spring statement last month. He will say:
double quotation mark There is a corrosive complacency today in Britain’s political leadership. Lip service is paid to the risks, the threats, the bright red signals of danger — but even a promised national conversation about defence can’t be started.
He will also say Britain is not safe.
double quotation mark We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe . . . Britain’s national security and safety is in peril.
Robertson is not a defence loudmouth. He is a quintessential establishment figure who for most of his career has avoided being provocative, or rocking the boat. If he feels minded to speak out like this, it must be serious.
Olivia Lee has a full write-up here.
This morning General Sir Richard Barrons, who along with Robertson was one of the three experts who wrote the defence review (the other was the former White House adviser and Russia expert Fiona Hill), gave an interview to the Today programme. Barrons, a former commander of Joint Forces Command, fully supported what Robertson will be saying in his speech. And he said that Britain’s armed forces are so diminished that he had to accept that Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, was right when he mocked the Royal Navy last month.
“Last time I checked, there was supposed to be a big, bad Royal Navy that could be prepared to do things like [clear the strait of Hormuz] as well,” Hegseth said.
Asked how he felt hearing that, Barrons said:
double quotation mark Like many others I hung my head in sorrow. But I couldn’t argue with him because although the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force and the army are, in their bones, outstanding institutions, they are simply too small and too undernourished to deal with the world that we we now live in. And the review says this.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet. There will be a political session, as well as the usual government meeting.
10am: South East Water executives give evidence to the environment, food and rural affairs committee, followed by Ofwat chief executive Chris Walters at 11am.
10am: Education experts give evidence to the Commons education committee about the proposed changes to Send (special educational needs and disabilities) provision.
10.30am: Executives from TikTok, Meta, Sky TV and Paramount TV executives give evidence to the culture committee about children’s TV and video content.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in south London.
11am: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, holds a press conference focusing on health.
11.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Afternoon: Starmer meets his Dutch counterpart, Rob Jetten, in Downing Street.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
About the Author
